The writing diary of a well-mellowed science writer who cares about the public understanding of science and knows the ropes. This blog bounces between my curiosity, the daily realities of professional writing, the joy of pursuing nature, and my recycling of ideas that won't be in some book or other as far as I can see, but still needed sharing. I welcome comments and suggestions! Spam will be blocked and reported.

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Sunday, 19 May 2013

Not your usual treatment

Keep an eye on that title. It introduces a new theme that will pop up from time to time over the next couple of years.

No, there will be no more than that, because you know what they say about the best-laid plans, but if it comes to fruition, this is where it all began.

One aspect of that is quacks and quack medicine. I will be mining that vein on and off, as part of the grander plan, for the rest of this year.

I plan to look, for example, at Perry Davis' famous Painkiller, even celebrated in Tom Sawyer:

One day Tom was in the act of dosing
the crack when his aunt's yellow cat came along, purring, eyeing the teaspoon
avariciously, and begging for a taste. Tom said:"Don't
ask for it unless you want it, Peter."But
Peter signified that he did want it."You
better make sure."Peter
was sure."Now
you've asked for it, and I'll give it to you, because there ain't anything mean
about me; but if you find you don't like it, you mustn't blame anybody but your
own self."Peter
was agreeable. So Tom pried his mouth open and poured down the Pain-killer.
Peter sprang a couple of yards in the air, and then delivered a war-whoop and
set off round and round the room, banging against furniture, upsetting
flower-pots, and making general havoc. Next he rose on his hind feet and
pranced around, in a frenzy of enjoyment, with his head over his shoulder and
his voice proclaiming his unappeasable happiness. Then he went tearing around
the house again spreading chaos and destruction in his path. Aunt Polly entered
in time to see him throw a few double summersets, deliver a final mighty
hurrah, and sail through the open window, carrying the rest of the flower-pots
with him. The old lady stood petrified with astonishment, peering over her
glasses; Tom lay on the floor expiring with laughter.

That Painkiller really existed, and it was apparently just as painful as Twain made out: I have the word of a New Zealand shepherd for that, by way of one Lady Barker, but I will hold that in reserve for now.

The claims made for patent medicines were completely uncontrolled. In the 1890s, (Heinrich Hermann) Robert Koch had made quite a name for himself as a meticulous discoverer of bacteria like the cholera germ. Using his name like that was fine, because they didn't claim that it was the same Dr. Koch: they just threw the name up and waited for the punters to make a false inference.

If there was any Koch involved with the nostrum on the right, I doubt that it was he. This one cure seems to be able to defeat viruses like smallpox, bacterial infections like consumption, erysipelas, gonorrhea and syphilis, cancers, deficiency diseases like scurvy, and even physical problems like piles and sciatica.

About the only thing that it failed to do, it seems, was cure snakebites. Still, in colonial Australia, there was a wonderful range of snakebite treatments, and I am looking into those as well, for another chapter.

About Me

I write and sometimes broadcast about science, for young and old. Use the link below to view my complete profile then look for the link on the left for my web site. You will see that I write mainly about science, and often about facts and events, but I'm not an historian, I'm a story-teller, and I write consumer history for both adults and children, depending on how the fit takes me on a given morning. I usually have one book coming back after editing or in production, one being edited, one being written and one or more being actively researched. I have just sent Not Your Usual Bushrangers and Not Your Usual Gold Stories to my new publisher, and corrected Big Book of Australian History for a second edition, due out in 2015. Now I am working on three new books — and blogging.